The 15-Year-Old Marine Killed in Vietnam
When Private First Class Dan Bullock was killed in Vietnam on June 7, 1969, the Marine lying dead on the battlefield was younger than anyone around him realized.
He was just 15 years old.
Bullock had altered his birth certificate, entered the Marine Corps while still a child, survived the demanding training at Parris Island, and eventually found himself thousands of miles from home serving as a rifleman with the 1st Marine Division.
Less than a month after arriving in Vietnam, he was dead.
His story remains one of the most unusual and tragic chapters of the Vietnam War.
A Boy Who Wanted to Be a Marine
Dan Bullock was born on December 21, 1953, in Goldsboro, North Carolina.
After his mother died, Bullock and his younger sister, Gloria, moved to Brooklyn, New York, where they lived with their father and stepmother.
Like many boys of his generation, Bullock thought about what he wanted to become when he grew older. Among the possibilities he reportedly considered were becoming a pilot or police officer.
But he also wanted to become a United States Marine.
Bullock wasn't willing to wait until he was old enough.
At only 14, he altered the year on his birth certificate from 1953 to 1949, making himself appear four years older.
On September 18, 1968, the Marine Corps accepted his enlistment.
Parris Island
Bullock was sent to Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina, where he became a member of Platoon 3039.
He initially struggled with the physical and mental demands of recruit training. Other recruits reportedly helped the young Marine through some of those difficulties.
Whatever struggles he experienced, Bullock made it.
On December 10, 1968, he graduated from Marine Corps recruit training.
The newly minted Marine was still only 14 years old.
No one around him knew it.
Orders to Vietnam
Several months later, Bullock received orders to Vietnam.
He arrived in South Vietnam on May 18, 1969, and was assigned to Company F, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division.
Bullock served as a rifleman with 2nd Squad, 2nd Platoon.
His unit was operating from An Hoa Combat Base in Quảng Nam Province, an important Marine installation southwest of Da Nang surrounded by territory heavily contested by American and communist forces.
Bullock had finally achieved what he had wanted.
He was a Marine serving alongside other Marines in a combat zone.
But he had been in Vietnam for less than three weeks when the war caught up with him.
The Night Attack at An Hoa
On the night of June 7, 1969, enemy forces attacked An Hoa.
Bullock had reportedly been assigned cleaning duties that evening. After another Marine was wounded while standing night watch, however, Bullock took his place.
During the attack, enemy sappers penetrated the defenses around the base.
Bullock and other Marines were occupying a bunker near the airstrip when a satchel charge was thrown into their position.
The explosion killed Bullock and two other Marines.
The Marine Corps had lost another rifleman in Vietnam.
But this Marine was different.
PFC Dan Bullock was only 15 years old.
He had been in Vietnam for approximately three weeks.
The Youngest American Serviceman Killed in Vietnam
Bullock is generally recognized as the youngest American serviceman killed in action during the Vietnam War.
His true age made the circumstances of his death particularly haunting.
At an age when most American teenagers were attending high school, Bullock had already stood on the yellow footprints at Parris Island, earned the title Marine, crossed the Pacific, joined an infantry battalion and entered a combat zone.
He never lived to see his 16th birthday.
A Marine Nearly Forgotten
Bullock's story did not immediately become widely known.
After his body was returned to North Carolina, he was buried at Elmwood Cemetery in Goldsboro. For decades, his grave lacked a proper military marker.
That finally changed in 2000, when efforts to recognize Bullock resulted in a veterans marker being placed at his grave.
His story has since received considerably more attention, ensuring that the teenager who served and died as a Marine would not disappear into history.
Remembering Dan Bullock
There is an uncomfortable element to Dan Bullock's story.
He should never have been in Vietnam at 15 years old.
He entered the Marine Corps by falsifying his age, and the system failed to discover that a child had entered military service and eventually been sent into combat.
But that does not diminish what happened after he put on the uniform.
Bullock endured recruit training, earned the Eagle, Globe and Anchor, served alongside fellow Marines and ultimately died beside them.
His life was extraordinarily short.
His time as a Marine was shorter still.
From his enlistment in September 1968 until his death in June 1969, fewer than nine months passed.
Yet more than half a century later, his name remains part of Marine Corps and Vietnam War history.
Private First Class Dan Bullock
Company F, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines
1st Marine Division
December 21, 1953 – June 7, 1969
He was 15 years old.